Alcohol in the Early Years of Marriage.

Marriage, a marker event for the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, brings with it many changes, including shifts in values, new roles, and adjustments in a couple's relationship. Marriage also appears to generate shifts in alcohol use and alcohol consumption, changes that can occur even before the marriage ceremony takes place. Alcohol plays a role in marital violence, marital quality, and marital disruptions. However, high levels of individual alcohol consumption in a marriage do not uniformly lead to lower marital quality. Rather, it may be the nature of a couple's drinking partnership (i.e., the interplay of each spouse's drinking context and drinking patterns) that has the most effect on the health of a marriage.

of a mutually satisfactory relationship and the reestab lishment or redefinition of ties, both as individuals and as a couple, with each member's extended family and peer network (Boss 1983;McGoldrick and Carter 1982). Al though these transitional tasks are often begun before marriage, their accomplishment continues into the early years of marriage.
Marriage also appears to engender a vital transition for newlyweds with respect to alcohol use and alcohol problems. Although much has been written on alcohol's effect on married life, little research has taken place on the role of alcohol during the transition to and early years of marriage. This article attempts to shed some light on this important developmental time period.

DRINKING BEFORE MARRIAGE
Alcohol use, particularly heavy alcohol use, 1 may come into play before the marriage itself through facilitating or delaying entry into marriage. Some evidence suggests that heavy drinking among adolescents may actually facilitate entry into marriage. For example, Power and Estaugh's (1990) longitudinal study of British youth reported that the males who were the heaviest drinkers when surveyed at age 16 were more likely to be married at age 23 than other males. Drinking was not predictive of marriage for females. This finding was generally cor roborated in a recent study by Forthofer and colleagues (1996). This effect may not be a result of the drinking per se but rather may stem from the fact that adolescents who are heavy drinkers are less likely to enter college and more likely to adopt adult roles after high school gradua tion. Other studies, however, have found either that drink ing has no effect on selection into marriage (Bachman et al. 1984) or that alcohol problems (e.g., legal, occupa tional, or health problems associated with drinking) in young adulthood may delay marriage (Horwitz and White 1991). Clearly, more research is needed to clarify these contradictory findings.
Alcohol use might play a role in how people select their partners: Considerable research suggests that alco holics are likely to be married to alcoholic spouses (see Jacob and Bremer 1986). However, this similarity could arise in four general ways: (1) selecting a partner with a similar drinking pattern or likelihood of developing alco holism, 2 as when a heavy drinker marries another heavy drinker (i.e., assortative mating); (2) one person influenc ing the other's drinking behavior; (3) social and contex tual factors that facilitate or inhibit the development of 1 The term "heavy alcohol use" is not used consistently in the alcohol research literature, and the studies referred to in this article likewise define the concept in different ways. In this article, heavy alcohol use is defined as consumption of six or more drinks per occasion at least once per week. 2 The term "alcoholism" is used in this article to encompass all levels of problem alcohol use and does not refer to a particular diagnostic system. alcoholism and that operate on both members of the couple (e.g., stressful life events); and (4) couples with different drinking patterns being more likely to divorce than couples with similar drinking patterns. Thus, simi larity alone does not constitute assortative mating. More indicative of assortative mating are the few studies that have examined spouses' drinking patterns before mar riage. For example, Leonard and Senchak (1993) reported that men and women who applied for a marriage license reported similar levels of alcohol use, measured in terms of average daily consumption, and alcohol problems in the year before marriage. Yamaguchi and Kandel (1993) found that husbands and wives reported similar levels of drug use before marriage. Whether these observed simi larities are the result of men and women choosing marital partners of the same education, ethnicity, and social class or whether drinking or drug use plays a more direct role in the marital choice is not known.

EFFECT OF THE TRANSITION TO MARRIAGE ON DRINKING PATTERNS
The effect of marriage on drinking is apparent even before the marriage ceremony has been completed. For those couples who marry at a developmentally normative age (i.e., early to late twenties), researchers have observed drinking changes in the year preceding the marriage. For example, MillerTutzauer and colleagues (1991) used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and found that men and women who married in a given year had reduced their drinking in the year before their marriage. Bachman and colleagues (in press) replicated this effect using data from the Monitoring the Future study. This study also indicated that such an anticipatory decline only occurred among participants who reported being engaged.
These declines continue into the first year of married life. MillerTutzauer and colleagues (1991) observed reductions in drinking immediately after marriage, and Bachman and colleagues (in press) found that even among people who reduce their drinking during the engagement period, further declines are apparent into the first year of marriage. However, both studies found no further changes after the first year. Thus, these two studies pinpoint the transition to marriage as a critical period in the reduction of heavy drinking.
The Buffalo Newlywed Study (BNS), a 3year pro spective study of couples applying for marriage licenses, has provided a more detailed description of the changes in drinking behavior that occur during the time period preceding marriage. The BNS assessed more than 500 couples at the time they applied for their marriage license, at their first anniversary, and at their third anniversary. Couples were evaluated with respect to drinking behavior, marital characteristics (e.g., marital satisfaction, feelings of intimacy, level of conflict and quality of communica tion, and marital violence), and personality characteris tics (e.g., hostility, masculinity, and femininity). Roberts and colleagues (1992a,b) examined the drinking behavior and contexts of drinking for the BNS couples before mar riage and during the first year of marriage. They found significant declines in the frequency of alcohol consump tion and in the number of alcohol problems each member of the couple experienced. These decrements could not be attributed to other developmental changes, such as getting a new job or a promotion, having a child, or simply "ma turing out" of heavier drinking with advancing age.
The drinking changes that occurred in the first year of marriage were not simply a generalized reduction in aver age alcohol consumption; contextspecific changes also took place. Although the proportion of time that the hus band drank at home increased significantly over the first year, the relative amount of time he spent drinking with his wife present did not change. In addition, the typical amount he drank with his wife present declined, but the typical amount he drank in her absence did not. Thus, for men, the changes in drinking patterns related to marriage may be restricted to occasions in which the husband drinks with his wife present and to drinking in a less risky context, such as in the home. Similarly, the proportion of time that the wife drank at home also increased during the first year of marriage. Unlike the husbands, however, the wives reduced their typical quantity both when the husband was present as well as when the husband was absent. For women, then, the effect of marriage on drink ing may be independent of their husband's presence.
Despite the overall reduction in drinking and drinking problems, a sizable proportion of the married men and women did not change their alcohol consumption after marriage; some even increased their drinking during the first year of married life. Roberts and colleagues (1992b) reported that premarital drinking was strongly correlated with drinking patterns in the first year of marriage. For example, among men who drank four or more times per week before marriage, 44 percent reported a lower fre quency for the first year of marriage. However, 56 percent of this group continued to drink at this level. Similarly, among men who drank between one and four times per month before marriage, 68 percent drank at this level or lower, but 32 percent increased their consumption. Thus, the transition to marriage leads many, but not all, couples to reduce their drinking. Identifying those who reduce their drinking and the processes responsible for this re duction will help further understanding of why some men and women continue to be heavy drinkers after marriage.

ALCOHOL EFFECTS ON EARLY MARITAL FUNCTIONING
Although marriage affects drinking and drinking prob lems, drinking also has an effect on marital quality. It is commonly assumed that frequent or heavy drinking has a detrimental impact on marital conflict and satisfaction, but this pattern is not uniformly the case. Evidence sug gests that drinking may have both positive and negative effects on a marriage.

Alcohol and Marital Violence
One of the clearest illustrations of the potentially nega tive effect of alcohol on marital functioning is the com monly observed relationship between heavy drinking and domestic violence. Although much of the initial research on the subject had serious design problems, more recent research (see Leonard and Jacob 1988) has documented a clear association between heavy drinking and physical aggression in marriage. Whether and how alcohol might play a causative role in such violence, however, remains unclear and controversial. Research indicates that heavy drinking is a major risk factor for marital violence; that it prospectively predicts the extent of marital violence early in marriage; and that this predictive relationship cannot be attributed to sociodemographic (e.g., age), personality (e.g., hostility), or relationship (e.g., marital conflict) vari ables (Leonard and Senchak 1996). After controlling for premarital violence, husband's and wife's demographic and personality factors, and the couple's conflict resolution styles, the husband's alcohol use was significantly related to the extent of marital violence for BNS couples in the first year of marriage. These results corroborate the finding by Heyman and colleagues (1995) that drinkingrelated variables were predictive of violence early in marriage.

Alcohol, Marital Quality, and Marital Disruptions
As might be expected, alcohol also appears to play a role in other serious marital problems. Leonard and Roberts (in press) examined the relation of married couples' al cohol consumption and alcohol problems to declines in marital quality and to the occurrence of marital disrup tions (i.e., marital separations and divorces) in the first year of marriage. Husbands' increased alcohol consump tion (measured in terms of the frequency of alcohol use and the usual quantity of alcohol consumed each day) and alcoholrelated problems were related to declines in couples' marital quality; however, these associations were not significant after controlling for personality and demographic characteristics. In contrast, husbands' heavy alcohol consumption following marriage was uniquely predictive of marital disruptions.
The findings for wives were quite different. Neither the wives' alcohol consumption nor their alcoholrelated problems were related to marital disruption. Both variables were predictive of changes in marital quality, however: Al cohol problems were predictive of decreased marital qual ity, but increased alcohol consumption, after controlling for alcoholrelated problems, was predictive of improved marital quality.
In crosssectional analyses of BNS data, Roberts and colleagues (1994) again found a similar positive associa tion: After controlling for problem drinking, wives' and husbands' frequent drinking predicted wives' greater feelings of intimacy toward their husbands. This associa tion was not evident for husbands' feelings of intimacy toward their wives. One interpretation of these findings is that alcohol consumption not resulting in problems may actually have some positive benefits for the marital rela tionship. The idea that alcohol consumption may have positive effects on marital functioning should not be sur prising. Research has demonstrated that although people recognize the negative behavioral effects of drinking, they also identify a number of positive effects of drinking, in cluding increases in affective expression and enhancements in both sexual and nonsexual intimacy. For example, most women drinkers in a U.S. national survey reported that drinking made them more able to "open up" and made them feel closer to persons with whom they shared a drink (Wilsnack et al. 1987). These beliefs (i.e., expectancies), rather than the pharmacologic action of the alcohol, ap pear to be of critical importance (Hull and Bond 1986) with respect to several effects of alcohol, including ten sion reduction and sexual arousal.

THE DRINKING PARTNERSHIP
Our research underscores the importance of both the interpersonal context and the physical situation or setting in which the drinking takes place (i.e., the drinking con text) in understanding the effects of drinking on mar riage. The establishment of a shared household increases each partner's sphere of influence over the other. Each partner becomes a salient feature of the other's drinking context, both through direct modeling as well as through the explicit or subtle communication of attitudes and values about drinking. Marriage thus profoundly alters a person's drinking context: With marriage, a "drinking partnership" is molded from the separate premarital drinking habits of each partner. Together, couples estab lish norms about such things as whether alcohol is served with meals, whether the refrigerator or alcohol cabinet is kept stocked, whether guests are offered drinks, and so on. Drinking partnerships may vary from a pattern in which the partners have one or two drinks together each night in the privacy of their home to one in which each partner separately drinks one night per week at a bar with his or her own friends. Drinking is incorporated into the fabric of a marriage in diverse ways. It may be the part nership, rather than the independent effects of one part ner's drinking, that is critical to marital functioning.

Effect of the Drinking Partnership on Marital Quality
Analyses of the BNS data (Roberts et al. 1994) have sup ported this more complex conceptualization of alcohol's effects on marriage. In addition to finding the positive association between frequent drinking and wives' assess Alcoholrelated marriage problems are marital problems that directly relate to or are exacerbated by alcohol consumption (e.g., drunken arguments).
2 General alcohol problems consist of social, legal, occupational, or health problems related to drinking behavior.
3 Discrepant drinkers are couples in which the husband drinks more than the wife in both frequency and quantity.
ment of marital quality, a significant interaction existed between husbands' and wives' frequency of drinking (Roberts et al. 1994). Reports of higher marital satisfaction among wives were associated with drinking frequencies that were similar (i.e., nondiscrepant) to those of their hus bands. When both the husband and the wife drank either frequently or infrequently, marital adjustment was higher. Nondiscrepant drinking quantities (i.e., the usual number of drinks per episode), however, were not predictive of higher marital quality for either husbands or wives.
To capture more fully the complexity of the notion of a drinking partnership, Roberts and Leonard (in press) tried to identify different types of naturally occurring drinking partnerships in early marriage. To identify drinking partnership profiles, patterns of six drinking and context variables were analyzed: the husband's and wife's drink ing frequency, the husband's and wife's typical quantity consumed per drinking occasion, the percentage of the couple's total drinking taking place in each other's pres ence, and the percentage of the couple's drinking occur ring in the home. Five different types of partnerships were identified, and their relation to marital functioning, marriage related drinking consequences, and general drinking con sequences (e.g., legal or work problems) was examined (see table). Consistent with our conception of the influ ence of the drinking partnership, profiles characterized by high levels of individual consumption were not uniformly associated with lower marital quality. For example, cou ples in one profile scored high on the quality indices, even though both partners consumed alcohol in quantities above the mean and did so more frequently than partners in any other profile group. However, these couples consumed their alcohol in an "intimate" context, at home and to gether. In contrast, the two profiles associated with less optimal marital functioning were characterized by dis crepant partner consumption patterns. In both of these profiles, the spouse who consumed more alcohol showed a pattern of higher quantity than frequency of consump tion. The significant relationships between drinking partnership profiles and marital functioning held after statistically controlling for each partner's average daily consumption. This result strongly suggests that the nature of a couple's drinking partnership affects both husbands' and wives' marital quality independent of alcohol consumption.

SUMMARY
The empirical research suggests that the transition to marriage in early adulthood is associated with declines in alcohol consumption and alcoholrelated problems. This transition also is associated with major structural and psy chological changes at the individual, couple, and social network levels. It is unclear, however, which of these changes are responsible for the "protective" effects of marriage on alcohol consumption. Furthermore, it is critical that research not uniformly view drinking as completely inimical to marriage. Clear risks to the rela tionship are associated with problem drinking. However, an assessment of the functional requirements of a marriage, along with an examination of how individual drinking patterns and, most critically, the drinking partnership affect those requirements, would further a thorough un derstanding of the effect of alcohol use on marriage. ■ Toorder your free copies of the Physicians' Guide and the patient brochure, write to: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Scientific Communications Branch, Willco Building, Suite 409, 6000 Executive Blvd., Bethesda, MD 20892-7003. Full text of both publications is available on NIAAA's World Wide Web site at http://www.niaaa.nih.gov is easy-to-follow manual provides primary care physicians and other health care professionals with guidelines on the use of screening and brief intervention procedures for patients at risk for alcohol p roblems. e brief intervention procedures are designed for use in primary care settings during routine patient visits. A lso available is the companion brochure for patients, "How To Cut Down on Your Drinking, " presenting tips for those whose doctors have advised them to reduce their alcohol consumption and who want to cut down.